COURTESY PHOTO Relieved parents John James Williams and Gizette Williams held their baby, Joshua Juan Luis, last Wednesday. Joshua is recovering in Texas from meconium aspiration syndrome.

Air-lifted baby gives
parents reason to hope

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By Pat Gee
pgee@starbulletin.com

Joshua Juan Luis Williams, the Oahu infant who had to be rushed to a Texas hospital in August for treatment of a rare lung disease, should be coming home in a week or two, according to his mother.

"He's a strong, tough baby. He's hanging in there," said Gizette Williams.

Joshua's father, Army Sgt. John James Williams, a technician at Tripler Army Medical Center, added that "the doctors said he's writing his own story." But he added that "it will take a long time for his lungs to be normal."

On Aug. 16, Joshua was born with born with meconium aspiration syndrome, which occurs when meconium, an abrasive substance created by the baby's waste in the amniotic fluid, damages the baby's lungs at birth. Doctors gave him little chance for survival.

On Aug. 22, Joshua and his parents were flown aboard a C-17 Globemaster from Hickam Air Force Base to Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Joshua was hooked up to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation transport, essentially a heart-lung bypass machine for newborns, and cared for by the Wilford's Critical Care Transport Team.

Williams said that for Joshua's first weeks of life, the baby was connected to so many beeping monitors and drainage tubes that all his parents could do was caress his tiny body.

Now, "we can hold him anytime we want. He really likes to be held," he said.

Joshua's mother, Gizette, added: "He was 35 days old before we got to hold him. You can't imagine ... It was so horrible. Your first instinct is you want to hold your child. It seemed like an eternity before we could," she said. "Now he goes to sleep on my shoulder."

The parents have stayed in Texas with their baby and are looking forward to returning to their home at Tripler and reuniting with the rest of their family, a 7-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter who are being cared for by Sgt. Williams' mother.

"We talk to them everyday," Sgt. Williams said. "We really miss being a family."

Gizette added, "In the beginning I didn't have any faith, but God grants miracles and has given us a second chance."